T-R FILE PHOTO - West Marshall’s Urijah Courter, left, has his hand raised after pinning Dionisio Andres of Perry during Heart of Iowa Conference dual meet action Dec. 19, 2024, in State Center. Courter is one of five West Marshall wrestlers who qualified for state on Friday.

HUMBOLDT — The Class 2A No. 9 West Marshall boys’ wrestling team crowned five district champions on its way to second place at the tournament hosted on Friday by Humboldt High School.

The Trojans qualified those five district champs for next week’s state meet a day early due to winter weather anticipated across the state on Saturday.

Humboldt held off the Trojans for the team title with 191 points, with West Marshall (189) and North Polk (176.5) giving chase in the eight-team meet.

The Trojans’ triumphant day kicked off at 113 pounds, where Urijah Courter — ranked No. 1 at 106 by IAwrestle — won with three-straight first-period pins. Courter (39-0) spent a total of just 4 minutes, 15 seconds on the mat en route to the district title.

Jon Gonzalez (39-3), ranked fifth, won the 120 bracket with a pair of wins. He scored a semifinal pin before tallying a 15-0 technical fall over No. 7 Gavyn Winters of Greene County in the finals.

Jack Decker kept it rolling at 126, improving to 31-11 with two wins on his way to the district crown. He scored a second-period technical fall in the semifinals before getting a 12-7 decision over Andrew Reed of North Polk in the finals.

Kinnick Geers was the fourth Trojan to qualify for state, improving to 33-12 with three wins at 144. He pinned Gilbert’s Braeden Ness in 3:58 in the finals.

Top-ranked Shane Hanford (42-0) racked up a pair of technical falls to win the 150 title, finishing with a 19-3 triumph over Evan Kelsick of North Polk.

West Marshall’s day didn’t escape hardship, however, as 11th-ranked Ben Gonzalez (34-9) suffered a quarterfinal loss by disqualification at 165. He bounced back to win his next three matches — all by fall — but didn’t get the chance to wrestle for true second place after Gilbert’s Josh Fink was pinned by ninth-ranked Degan Miller of Greene County in the 21-second finale.

The Trojans lost their only true-second match, as Dawson Goodman was unable to rally back at 190. Skylar Hanford traveled the comeback trail at 285, going 3-1 on the day with only a semifinal loss to Narciso Hildalgo of Perry. There was no true-second match after Hidalgo lost to Eagle Grove’s Jesus Baez in the finals, 4-1 in sudden victory.

Garrett Bear (106), Dalton Eldridge (138) and Evan Meester (215) all placed fourth for the Trojans.